Ethnography and Virtual Worlds
The concept of ethnography can be traced back as far as human thought has been recorded. The concept is constantly changing, and what might have been considered ethnography then, would not be considered ethnography now.
For example, today it is defined as a scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures. Today, we record ethnographic data in extensive detail and thought, by conducting several experiments, and recording countless hours of field work. However, the concept of writing as a technology is always changing. I believe that to understand the development of ethnography, we must look at how communication and writing itself has changed as well.
One of the earliest precursors of writing were notched bones. The concept is as simple as the term, societies recorded language simply by carving lines into bones. One major drawback to this system was that knowledge was limited to the author, no one outside of him could ever know what the notches meant. However, this in itself could be considered one of the earliest forms of ethnography. Since the author could have been recording anything, this concept could have been used to record information about the cultures and societies at the time.
As time moved forward, these concepts evolved and changed into more descriptive forms of recording thought. These forms included clay tokens and quipus. Clay tokens were a more advanced system that was easier to understand, each distinctly shaped token represented something different. Clay tokens were often used to keep inventory of goods, which is another concept someone could base an ethnography.
Now when we move on to the emergence of written language. In his handbook called Ethnography and Virtual Worlds, Boellstorff states that the word “ethnography” originates from the Greek terms “’ethnos’, people, and ‘graphein’, writing”, and it was first coined in 1767. The idea of ethnography originated from the attempt to create encyclopedias, and the concept of ethnography itself has evolved as well. For example, ethnographies from the 20th century often did not consist of fieldwork, which is an essential part of creating an ethnography today.
The concept of fieldwork and participant observation was introduced by Bronislaw Malinowski, a teacher at the School of Economics in London from 1922 to 1938. Other advancements in ethnography that were introduced later were the concepts of emic and etic perspectives, “thick description”, which refers to providing detailed contexts, and the three schools of thought that have majorly shaped the concepts of ethnography — structuralism, postcolonialism, and feminism.
Today, communication has advanced to the point that we are able to connect with others virtually. Although Boellstorff describes current virtual worlds to be forms of technology, specifically video games, he states that “Notions of a “virtual” aspect to human existence can be traced back to cave painting, early Greek and Chinese thought, through the development of writing and the printing press, and among Aboriginal cultures throughout the world” (Boellstorff, 43).
Since emerging virtual spaces, like video gaming, have become increasingly popular, ethnographies are considered an important method for analyzing virtual life. Virtual life has led ethnographers to produce a range of research focusing on several different topics.
One of these topics touches on the effect of virtual worlds on real life relationships. It is not a new realization that due to the plethora of technology, we have become increasingly immersed in it. However, there has been an increased cause for concern that people might begin to abandon real relationships for virtual ones entirely.
For example, a virtual world called Second Life which began in 1999 has seven million players today, who create their own avatars and lead their lives online.
Another ethnographic research topic that has been focused on is the effects of virtual worlds on intellect. There have been many thoughts on this topic. Some believe that the use of social media and virtual worlds has caused us to become less intellectual. We store less information in our brains because it is so readily available online. We have become less emotionally intelligent, because many of our interactions take place through a screen and not face to face.
There are also many benefits to technology. For example, virtual worlds have increased our multitasking abilities. They have taught us to use new technologies, and we are able to learn things quicker. The general thought on this issue is that although technology and virtual worlds have their benefits, over-reliance on it can become dangerous.
